Rare & Antiquarian Books Antiquarian Books

The history of books is as old as the history of thought. Before the first century AD introduced the techincal advances of the codex, the written word was preserved on clay tablets and parchment scrolls. This selection is reserved for some of the oldest offerings in the Rare Book Room.

Johannes Gutenberg and Laurens Janszoon Coster independently came upon the concept of printing books rather than copying them by hand around 1440. Their invention of moveable type forever changed books. These offerings of incunabula are among the earliest printed books in the Western World.